Two faculty members of the institute - Prof Uttama Lahiri and Prof Prachi Thareja - received the prestigious "Prof Indira Parikh 50 Women in Education Leaders" Award. The award ceremony was held at the World Education Congress on “Sustainable Development Goals, Quality Education for All” in Mumbai on July 5.

I feel excited on being selected for this prestigious award. This award will help encourage my endeavours in carrying out cutting-edge research to deliver tangible technological devices beneficial to the mankind.

Prof Uttama Lahiri

An Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering, Prof Uttama Lahiri has worked extensively on Automated Techniques for Stroke Rehabilitation and Autism Intervention, with one of her ideas (for which patent application has been filed) moving towards commercialisation.

Prof Lahiri’s research interests include virtual reality-based human computer interaction used in affective computing, eye tracking and physiology-based modeling techniques, and human-robot interaction used in cognitive studies.

An Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering, Prof Prachi Thareja’s research seeks to answer how the underlying microstructure influences the flow properties of “soft materials”. Several examples of soft materials exist around us viz. gels, polymer blends, emulsions and liquid crystals. How they flow when a stress is applied or removed is of immense interest to industry and academicians. Prof Thareja is studying novel suspensions, gels for adsorption, nanoparticle containing hydrogels for antimicrobial action and food-grade emulsions.

I am honored to receive this award. This award inspires me and the women scientists’ fraternity to undertake impactful research and to educate the next generations of engineers and scientists.

Prof Prachi Thareja